Larry Lindsey thinks Paul O’Neill’s a jerk – and thought he would get the Treasury job once O’Neill got the boot, sources told The Post.

The two have been at each others’ throats for weeks, as it became increasingly clear that the president was preparing to toss one of them overboard.

When Lindsey learned that although O’Neill would be forced out but Lindsey was being passed over for the promotion he wanted, he too decided to leave.

It is believed he is heading back to the American Enterprise Institute, where he worked before joining the Bush administration.

Bush had wanted O’Neill’s resignation for months, sources close to the White House said. When O’Neill didn’t take repeated hints to voluntarily resign, Bush went ahead and asked for it.

“O’Neill had no idea this was coming,” said a White House source. “He thought he was one of the Apostles.”

Bush lost faith in O’Neill after a series of verbal goofs that roiled markets around the world. While O’Neill traveled the globe with rock star Bono, the U.S. economy fell into recession and is now only in a muted recovery.

Lindsey, on the other hand, lost his job because of his infighting with other members of the Bush economic team. He was also suspected of leaking stories, which displeased the anti-media president.

Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have been secretly meeting with potential replacements for O’Neill for months and are said to already have a candidate in mind, though they are not yet announcing it publicly.